When auditing your website, there are several key aspects to evaluate to ensure optimal performance, usability, and compliance. Here’s a comprehensive list of things to look at:
1. Technical SEO
- Crawlability: Ensure search engines can crawl and index your site properly.
- Mobile-Friendliness: Check if the site is responsive and optimized for mobile devices.
- Page Speed: Evaluate load times using tools like Google PageSpeed Insights. Slow speeds affect user experience and SEO.
- SSL/HTTPS: Verify the site is secure with an SSL certificate.
- Sitemaps and Robots.txt: Ensure the sitemap is up-to-date and robots.txt is configured correctly.
2. On-Page SEO
- Meta Tags: Ensure proper meta titles and descriptions for each page, optimized for relevant keywords.
- Keyword Usage: Analyze if keywords are used naturally in headers (H1, H2, etc.), content, and alt tags.
- URL Structure: Check that URLs are clean, short, and keyword-optimized.
- Image Optimization: Compress images and use descriptive alt tags for SEO.
3. User Experience (UX)
- Navigation: Evaluate the ease of site navigation. Ensure a clear, logical structure with accessible menus.
- Design Consistency: Check for consistency in design elements such as colors, fonts, and layout.
- Readability: Ensure text is easy to read with sufficient contrast, font size, and line spacing.
- Call-to-Action (CTA): Check if CTAs are visible, clear, and effective in driving user action.
- Accessibility: Ensure the site is accessible for all users, including those with disabilities (e.g., alt text, ARIA labels).
4. Content
- Quality and Relevance: Ensure content is high-quality, informative, and up-to-date.
- Internal Linking: Check the use of internal links to help users navigate the site and improve SEO.
- Duplicate Content: Identify any duplicate content issues, as they can harm SEO.
- Blog and Updates: Ensure you have fresh, updated content regularly for user engagement and SEO benefits.
5. Performance Metrics
- Bounce Rate: Analyze how many visitors leave without interacting, which can indicate poor user experience or irrelevant content.
- Conversion Rate: Track how well your CTAs are converting visitors into leads or customers.
- Time on Site: Measure how long visitors stay on your site; longer times typically indicate better engagement.
6. Security
- Vulnerabilities: Run security scans to identify potential vulnerabilities (e.g., outdated plugins, weak passwords).
- Backup and Recovery: Ensure regular backups and a reliable recovery system in case of data loss.
- Firewall: Implement a web application firewall (WAF) to protect against common web attacks.
7. Analytics and Tracking
- Google Analytics: Verify that Google Analytics is correctly installed and tracking essential metrics.
- Conversion Tracking: Set up goal tracking for key actions (e.g., form submissions, purchases).
- Tag Manager: Ensure all tracking codes (e.g., Facebook Pixel, Google Ads) are installed via Google Tag Manager for better management.
8. Compliance
- GDPR/Privacy Policies: Ensure the site complies with data privacy regulations like GDPR (Europe) or CCPA (California).
- Cookie Consent: Implement a cookie consent banner that complies with regulations.
- ADA Compliance: Make sure your website is accessible to people with disabilities.
9. Competitor Analysis
- Benchmarking: Compare your site’s performance and SEO against key competitors.
- Content Gaps: Identify opportunities where competitors may be outperforming you in content or keywords.
Focusing on these areas can lead to significant improvements in website performance, user experience, and search engine rankings.